Dexter Season 7 Episode 3 “Buck The System” Review

Episode 3 of Dexter season 7, titled “Buck the System”, featured a number of tense, intriguing discussions between brother and sister, while posing the legitimately difficult question: Is Dexter a necessary evil in the world? Read the full review after the jump.

For years, Dexter has rambled about change and fitting in and whether he can just be a normal human being. But he can’t be. We’ve all known this for awhile and it’s been refreshing this season to hear Dexter admit as much. But does that mean there’s no place for him in society? It was fascinating to watch Dexter actually let Deb into his universe, to take her along to the suspect stakeout and attempt to explain his routine and his rationale for who he selects. He really is trying; not to change, but to adapt to this new situation. It made sense Deb would reject the notion at first out of sheer shock and disgust that her brother is a serial killer, not to mention that pesky detail that she’s a police captain assigned to uphold the law. But then she got a first hand look at Ray, at the fact that monsters really do exist in the world and it’s a simple fact that the system can’t always bring them to justice. Can she sign off on Dexter’s murderous habit? Can she openly approve and even assist him with the kills? Of course not. It would be far too abrupt a change.

But can Deb try to turn a blind eye? Absolutely. What’s the alternative? Arrest her brother? Lose the most important person in her life and walk around knowing that person actually could have saved a few innocent lives? These are sincerely interesting, ethical questions.

Deb’s plan to save Dexter through intense observation and half-cocked detoxing came from a place of love and hope, but there was no way that he was ever going to help make that work—because he doesn’t really want to change. Dexter has spent too much time embracing his Dark Passenger, and he’s certainly worked very hard to convince himself that the code is good enough to keep him from being a full-blown monster. So, despite Deb’s best hopes, her plan is all but busted. “Buck the System” moved into another realm of their new relationship: Dexter telling her the truth.

When he recognized that she wasn’t going to stop badgering him about his whereabouts, Dexter turned the tables on Deb and laid everything out on the table. He further explained the code, why he does what he does and more importantly, why he does what he does. And for good measure, he brought Deb along while he was casing a probable killer in hopes of convincing her of the value of his work.

Yvonne Strahovski made her anticipated debut in this episode as Hannah McKay, the former accomplice of a deranged killer Miami PD needs information from now that the long-closed case is opened, and the Ukrainian mob story took a nice turn as well. After Dexter sent the hand back into the office and the weird video diary to Jamie, Louis lost both his job and his girlfriend. So, in hopes of getting some quick payback, Louis went to the marina to sink Dex’s boat. The problem with that? Issak and George happened to be there at the same time, looking for the owner of said boat because it was the last place that a GPS tracked Viktor to. Louis gave up Dexter as the owner of the boat and got himself a bullet in the head for his troubles.

Quinn is still pursuing Nadia, the stripper from Isaac’s club. Though Isaac asked Nadia to get close to Quinn to see if the cops found a bracelet, which contained a GPS chip, she actually likes him and tells him the truth. They promise to give each other just enough information to please both their bosses and to keep Nadia safe.

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